Liverpool, whose lingering top-four hopes were kept alive in last night’s easy 3-0 win over West Ham at Anfield, were hoping the reopening of airspace in northern England today could ease their travel headaches. But they were forced to draw up other plans after Uefa’s refusal to postpone the tie.

The ruling was condemned by supporters’ groups who claimed fans were “at the bottom of the list” as far as Uefa were concerned and that they were “waiting for the weather to make their minds up for them.” Liverpool are setting off to Madrid 24 hours earlier than planned because of travel restrictions following the volcanic eruption.

Rafa
Benitez’s squad are facing five separate legs of a journey which will
start with a short coach trip from Melwood to catch a train to London
at lunchtime today.

They will then take the
Eurostar to Paris and stay overnight. Another train journey awaits on
Wednesday morning when Liverpool will head to Bordeaux, before
hopefully catching a flight to Madrid, which will see them arrive in
the Spanish capital 24 hours after first leaving Merseyside.

In total, the different trips will last about eight hours.

If flights are taking off, then there is the possibility that Liverpool could fly out of Stansted to Madrid once in London.

Benitez
is already shorn of striking talisman Fernando Torres for the first leg
of the tie that remains the club’s only hope of lifting silverware.

Liverpool
have sold 1,600 tickets for the game at the Vicente Calderon, but are
expecting many to now be returned, with travel problems exacerbated by
Uefa’s decision to go ahead with the game.

Fulham’s trip to Hamburg is also being played.

Uefa claim that, with the competition at the semi-final stage, there were no alternative dates for the game to be rearranged.

“It is no surprise,” said Les Lawson, secretary of the Merseyside branch of the Official Liverpool Supporters’ Club.

“Where
Uefa is concerned, football supporters are always bottom of the list
and the last to be thought of. Once again no one has thought of how the
fans will get there.”